Women

THE 21ST Century belongs to women. That’s what many pundits were saying
in the run up to the year 2000. Much is made of the fact that there are
marginally more women at work now than men, as if this alone is a
measure of equality.

TO CELEBRATE International Women’s Day, ELEANOR DONNE looks at the
situation facing women in Britain today and what difference socialism
would make to their lives. cwi online.

What socialism would mean for women

Yet in the workplace, at home and in society in general it is obvious to
many women that they have not achieved equality, let alone liberation.
It is true that women are now more than 50% of the workforce, but they
make up 75% of the low paid. 30 years after the Equal Pay Act was
implemented women only earn 72% of average male earnings.

Work that is done mostly by women brings with it low status and wages.
Nursery nurses across Scotland are currently taking industrial action to
try to gain a living wage. In a capitalist society caring for and
educating young children quite clearly is not as valued as, say, working
on the stock exchange or in advertising.

Although women increasingly work outside the home, recent surveys show
that they still end up doing most of the housework and childcare in the
home. Many more and increasingly younger women are also finding
themselves caring for elderly and sick relatives, because of the lack of
help available from local authorities.

It would be wrong to say that nothing had changed for the better in the
last 25 years, but for a lot of working class women in particular, life
is a struggle to find the time and the money to get to the end of the
week.

Many young women today have much higher expectations than their mothers
and grandmothers had, in terms of higher education, and a career. The
most blatant forms of discrimination have been outlawed and of course
every large employer has their ’equality and diversity’ policy. But
young women, and older women too, face increased pressure and oppression
in different ways.

We are bombarded with images in magazines, and adverts of ’perfect’
women, advised how to have ’the appearance of visibly younger looking
skin’. The capitalist economy relies on advertising to create a ’need’
(to be thin, to look young ) and creates an ever increasing market for
cosmetics, diet regimes etc to ’fulfil’ this.

Cosmetic surgery is no longer the preserve of a few rich Hollywood stars
as increasing numbers of ordinary women feel the pressure (and can
borrow the money) to conform to the current ’ideal’ body shape.

But many women ask how do we change this? Isn’t it just about men’s
attitudes, and won’t it always be like this? Would life be any different
in a socialist society?

Can we change things?

It is true, of course, that women’s inequality and oppression did not
start with modern capitalism and dates from very early history.

But this does not mean that it is ’natural’ and has always existed. It
has its roots in the development of class society and the family as an
economic and social unit.

Women’s role became primarily to produce children to inherit newly
acquired wealth, and their sexuality was strictly controlled. Capitalism
adapted the family to reinforce the role of women in the family as
unpaid domestic servants and promoted the idea that their role in the
workplace was secondary to that, so justifying low pay and lack of job
security.

The government uses ideology about ’family responsibilities’ to absolve
itself from blame for the many social problems that are inherent to such
an unequal, fragmented society.

Socialism

In a socialist society major industries, banks and financial
institutions would be publicly owned, democratically run and accountable.

Employees and consumers and other elected representatives would
democratically control what is produced, the wealth and resources this
generates and the effect on the environment.

Instead of profits being creamed off for shareholders and billionaires
they could be invested in housing, schools, hospitals, nurseries and
other much needed facilities.

Equal pay

Our call for an £8 per hour minimum wage and a minimum income of £320 a
week, is a step towards what would be possible in a democratic planned
economy, in which no-one could ’earn’ the obscene amounts that the
captains of industry award themselves and jobs such as cleaning,
catering and childcare (traditionally women’s jobs) would have equal pay
and status with ’men’s jobs’.

’Work/life balance’

Baggage handlers and check-in staff at British Airways in Heathrow
walked out at the end of last year, against the imposition of ’flexi’
working which would have meant the (mostly women) workers doing split
shifts and would make sorting out childcare a nightmare.

Women working full time now work on average an extra half day a week,
with British men working the longest hours in Europe. As a first measure
full time work should be limited to a maximum of 35 hours a week, with
no loss of pay. Over time it would be possible to reduce those hours
further so that people could have more leisure time or time with their
children - (the two things aren’t always the same!)

Childcare

Currently childcare is available for only one in seven children under
eight years old and costs more than in any other European country.

Access to help via tax credits is not much help if you cannot get a
nursery place!

A key part of a socialist society would be access to a range of
flexible, free, child care facilities that kids like and that are not
just there so that parents can work, but play as well.

Reproductive rights

Women should have the right to choose when and whether to have a child.
Such a choice should include the right to a free termination without the
need for a doctor’s permission, and access to fertility treatment on the
NHS but also access to decent housing, childcare and a minimum income so
that having a child does not lead to poverty and isolation.

These measures would make a big practical difference to the daily lives
of working class women and many middle class women but would also raise
their status and help to undermine sexism.

Reactionary attitudes to women are very deeply ingrained and
unfortunately they are unlikely to disappear overnight in a socialist
society.

In the longer term a socialist society - one which is based not on
exploitation but co-operation, equality and genuine democracy - would
develop a culture and ideology that reflected the values of the new
society, including within personal relationships. Only then will women
and men be truly liberated.

From The Socialist, paper of the Socialist Party, cwi in England and
Wales